The newly renovated arena at the State Fairgrounds will be known as Indiana Farmers Coliseum in a $6 million, 10-year naming rights deal announced Tuesday.

Indiana Farmers Mutual Insurance Co. reached the deal with the Indy Fuel hockey team, which keeps the money as outlined in its contract with the State Fair Commission. The commission had to approve the naming rights sponsor.

A new sign, featuring Indiana Farmers’ mascot, Garfield, will be placed on the building’s facade, but probably not until this spring, said Andy Klotz, a spokesman for the State Fair.

The purchase of the naming rights is part of an aggressive branding and growth strategy for Indiana Farmers. The Carmel-based insurance company purchased the right to use Indiana artist Jim Davis’ feline comic strip character a couple years ago and is experiencing growth of about 5 percent in premium volume, said Kim Smith, the company’s chief executive.

“This provides us with what we think is a perfect opportunity at the right time for us to grow our brand and grow our business,” Smith said. “When we looked at the Coliseum, it’s more than just a building. It’s a Hoosier icon. We write business exclusively for Indiana residents, so we share that common Hoosier heritage.”

State Fairgrounds Executive Director Cindy Hoye said her agency has talked to a lot of companies over the past two years and thinks “we have found the perfect partner.”

The coliseum deal, with an average of $600,000 in per year payments, is higher than the $500,000 State Fair officials were seeking from Pepsi when the previous naming rights deal with that company ended in 2012.

At that time, Pepsi had been paying about $170,000 a year to have its name atop the Coliseum.

The new deal’s $600,000 yearly average is double that of Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, home of the TinCaps minor league baseball team. Half of the money goes to the city and half goes to the team.

The Indianapolis Colts keep all of the money from the naming rights deal at Lucas Oil Stadium: an average of $6 million per year over 20 years.

The Fuel, which competes in the ECHL, pays the commission $900,000 per year to use the coliseum. It also paid up to $927,000 for an electronic “ribbon board” in the coliseum.

Klotz said the deal helps pay off the bonds from last spring’s $63 million renovation of the 75-year-old coliseum. Those upgrades included a new scoreboard, lights, sound system and chairs. The project also added an adjacent youth sports arena. State Fair officials are still looking for a sponsor for that facility.

The contract between the Fuel and the State Fair Commission prohibited a tobacco or alcohol company from becoming the naming rights sponsor. It also banned gambling companies or a business “generally considered to be risque.”

Among other benefits, the contract calls for the sponsor’s name to be on center ice for hockey and in two locations on the court for basketball. IUPUI plays its men’s basketball games and two women’s basketball games at the coliseum.

“The naming rights to the building is about more than the Indy Fuel,” team President Sean Hallett said. “There’s a lot of history there at the coliseum, and a lot that goes on there beside the Indy Fuel. But as the anchor tenant, yeah, it’s good for us. ... We think having the Indy Fuel in the building added some value to what could have otherwise been realized.”